Kết thúc một câu chuyện tình

đài AM đang bắt đầu được gỡ dần khỏi rất nhiều xe ô tô...

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America’s love affair (chuyện tình, mối quan hệ yêu đương) between the automobile (ô tô) and AM radio — a century-long romance that provided the soundtrack for lovers’ lanes, kept the lonely company (bạn bè, bằng hữu) with ballgames and chat shows, sparked family singalongs and defined road trips — is on the verge of collapse (trên bờ vực sụp đổ), a victim of galloping (tiến triển nhanh) technological change and swiftly shifting consumer tastes.

The breakup is entirely one-sided, a move by major automakers to eliminate AM radios from new vehicles despite protests (phản đối) from station owners, listeners, first-responders (lực lượng phản ứng nhanh/ tuyến đầu trong công tác đối phó khi có tình huống khẩn cấp) and politicians from both major parties.

Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with (gây trở ngại, cản trở) the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.

Some station owners and advertisers contend that losing access to the car dashboard will indeed be a death blow (đòn tử, đòn chí mạng) to many of the nation’s 4,185 AM stations — the possible demise of a core element of the nation’s delivery system for news, political talk (especially on the right), coverage of weather emergencies and foreign language programming.

“This is a tone-deaf display of complete ignorance about what AM radio means to Americans,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade journal covering the talk radio industry. “It’s not the end of the world for radio, but it is the loss of an iconic piece of American culture.”

source: washingtonpost,